The naval combat in Black Flag is the main focus of AC IV. The ship-based gameplay also breathes just enough life into the franchise to make it feel fresh and new. In some ways, sailing your ship around the open seas is very reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD’s open-world sailboat navigation system. The often slow-paced, methodical nature of AC IV’s naval combat isn’t for everyone though and I can see many gamers getting bored with it rather quickly.

There’s an extreme level of strategy and multitasking to maneuvering your giant ship around while managing various projectiles and avoiding islands and waves. If you’re beside an enemy ship, you can attack with broadside cannons. If it’s behind you, throw some fire barrels out the back and hope your enemy accidentally sails into them, causing a significant amount of damage in the process. Sometimes you’ll be up against a Man of War class vessel and need to use mortars to take it out at a distance.

Once you disable an enemy ship it can either be sunk or boarded. The first few times I boarded an enemy vessel it was extremely exciting, but after the 30th, the entire process started to get boring. It would have been nice if Ubisoft threw some variety into the mix somehow.

Stealth gameplay in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is the best it’s ever been in an Assassin’s Creed game.

Still, during particularly chaotic experiences, it’s hard to deny how impressive battles can be, sometimes creating ship-to-ship combat scenes rivalling the movie Master and Commander in terms of set pieces.

Your crew reels you beside the enemy boat, jumps aboard and starts hacking and slashing away. You have the opportunity to take a few shots at your enemies with a side-mounted small cannon and then hop aboard yourself, either by swinging between the two ships or jumping if you’re close enough. Once you’ve killed the required number of enemies, the ship is yours. You collect its cargo, which can be sold at port or you have the choice to send it to Kenway’s fleet. Goods can also be used to repair your ship. In heated fire fights involving numerous vessels, boarding for the purpose of repairs is essential for survival and is often the best option.

The big draw with AC IV is its open world nature, borrowed from Ubisoft’s other big franchise, Far Cry 3.

In many ways, the Jackdaw, the name of your ship in the game, is Assassin’s Creed IV’s true main character and upgrading your vessel’s various components, particularly armour, is necessary to progress in Black Flag, especially during later, more dangerous areas of the game. Also, since the Jackdaw is such a big part of Assassin’s Creed IV, I found myself actively taking out British and Spanish ships (sometimes vessels way too powerful for me to handle) so I could steal goods and make money to purchase upgrades at the nearest port. I’m often the kind of person who ignores upgrading systems in video games but AC IV’s ship building mechanic made me care enough to put in the time to upgrade the Jackdaw.

The naval combat in AC IV is so entertaining, that I wouldn’t mind a spin-off of the series completely focused on this portion of the game. Throw in a few real-time strategy based elements – something past Assassin’s Creed games have dabbled in – and Ubisoft could have a completely new franchise on their hands.

The game’s story, while much more coherent and entertaining than previous Assassin’s Creed games, is still a little all over the place and difficult to follow. I continue to question why Ubisoft insists on tying the game to the present day through the Templars, Abstergo Industries and the animus, especially because this portion of the game’s story seems to play a lesser role in Black Flag than it has in past Assassin’s Creed games. I understand why Ubisoft includes these elements in the game’s story, but part of me wishes each Assassin’s Creed game was just tied to the order of Assassins. Why can’t each game follow the journey of different assassin in a different era?

Assassin’s Creed IV is set in the age of pirates. Where and when could the next title in the franchise end up taking place? Some rumours indicate ancient Egypt could be the next setting.

The first-person present day portion of the game, set in Abstergo Industries video game development studio, is a very meta experience and there are quite a few nods to Ubisoft’s own development studios in these sections of the game. Unfortunately, they’re by far the most boring and worst parts of AC IV. While playing them, I often wondered why Ubisoft even bothered to include these sections in the first place.

Edward Kenway is the typical hunkish rogue you’d expect to be the main character in an Assassin’s Creed game. Kenway is slightly more conflicted than Assassin’s Creed III’s Connor and has an interesting relationship with the order of Assassins that develops over the course of the game.

There’s also a significant arc this time between who Kenway is at the beginning of the game and who he becomes by the time the credits roll. His personal struggle with being a pirate is also interesting. For the most part supporting characters, apart from Black Beard, are pretty forgettable.

In terms of stealth – I never thought I’d say this – but just like Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the developer has found a way to successfully make being sneaky more exciting and fun. The environment, trees, bushes, buildings and haystacks, is used as your primary means to hide from enemies and are plentiful in Assassin’s Creed IV’s world, giving you numerous places to hide. In past Assassin’s Creed titles cover always felt like it wasn’t common enough.

Assassin’s Creed IV is all about naval combat. It’s one of the game’s biggest strengths.

Guards also seem less relentless than they were in Assassin’s Creed III. It’s possible to mess up and get discovered by a few enemies but still be able to take them out and continue your mission. Still, there are a few frustrating missions that force stealth on the player and aren’t very open-ended. The fact that Ubisoft has found a way to make sneaking around challenging and entertaining but not frustrating, is a monumental accomplishment.

Stealth games often fall apart once you’re caught. This isn’t the case with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Enemies during certain missions just stand around, waiting for you to kill them, breaking the illusion they’re part of a living, breathing world. Also, while guards are more forgiving in AC IV, some gamers might see this as them just being less intelligent. In some ways, there’s a trade off with Black Flag’s lenient guards.

Since Black Flag is one of the many upcoming games straddling the line between the current-generation and next-generation video games consoles, I expected the PS3 version (the one I played) to have significant technical issues. For the most part I was surprisingly wrong.

The game looks gorgeous, particularly during large-scale naval battles. Its weather effects and gigantic wave filled ocean are also equally impressive. Unfortunately, when in towns where there are numerous characters on-screen at once, I ran into a small amount of lag.

The slow down isn’t experience crippling, but it was present and did happen quite frequently. Hopefully the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version of Assassin’s Creed IV won’t experience these problems.

Assassin’s Creed IV’s 17th century Caribbean world is also full of interesting historical facts and is a treat for anyone interested in history like myself. Activities like whaling, underwater exploration and my personal favourite, treasure hunting, are also entertaining. Black Flag is one of the few games that actually offers side distractions I’m interested in.

AC IV also has a robust multiplayer mode that’s very similar to what we’ve seen in previous Assassin’s Creed games. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to spend enough time with it to adequately judge whether it’s worth your time or not.

Since I’ve always wanted an open-world pirate game and have had an interest in pirate lore since I was really young (I blame the Monkey Island series), it’s almost like Assassin’s Creed IV was built for me. Whether or not Ubisoft can continue to sustain the Assassin’s Creed franchise with continued yearly iterations, remains to be seen.

With Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Ubisoft has found a way to perfect the series they’ve been building for the last six years.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was released on Oct. 29 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U. It drops on Nov. 19 for PC, Nov. 15 on the PS4 and Nov. 22 for the Xbox One. This review is of the PlayStation 3 version of Black Flag.